Newtown’s latest Charter Revision Commission is heading into June with the end of a yearlong tunnel in sight. Following a May 27 meeting, ccommission Chairman Jeff Capeci said the group was more than two-thirds finished with what will amount to a complete review and refinement of the community’s constitutional document.

One of the commission’s most protracted and complicated revisions related to the acquisition and disposition of public or town-owned property was unanimously adopted this week. That final recommendation was the product of many hours of deliberation and fine tuning at both the committee and full commission level, with commission Vice Chair Robert Hall and Commissioner Deborra Zukowski shepherding the revision from the start.

On September 30, Town Attorney David Grogins went before the commission requesting the panel simplify what he called the currently mandated and “elaborate procedure to acquire or dispose of town-owned property.” He suggested commissioners consider language in other town charters that is effective but much less complicated.

Mr Grogins said the idea of such a complex process may have been more justified at the local level before the state initiated a recent law requiring all municipalities to conduct a “widely advertised public hearing to protect from [the] secret disposition” of town and city properties in so-called “sweetheart deals.”

At the time, Ms Zukowski said if private sales are being considered, the panel needs to be sure to create language that makes the sale process “as transparent as possible to give people comfort, or to make them more comfortable that it isn’t a sweetheart deal.”

The first substantive changes proposed are in Charter Section 7-93, regarding the sale or disposition of real property acquired for nonpayment of taxes. The panel proposes that any “real property acquired for non-payment of taxes shall be sold unless the legislative council by a majority of its entire membership votes to explore the advisability of retaining said real property for a specific town purpose which it finds exists.”

If the new language is eventually adopted, after a waiting period of no more than 180 days when various considerations could be made regarding such a parcel, the “Legislative Council would then request the impact statement immediately after voting to explore the advisability of retaining said real property.”

Regarding the sale or acquisition of property for open space, the commission is recommending that qualifying parcels sanctioned for disposition “may be exchanged for land of equal value for open space purposes which shall be permanently restricted to open space purposes.”

The last major revision, in Section 7-95 regarding the procedure for sale of real property, the commission proposes language stating, “In exceptional circumstance fully described in its action and fully setting forth its reasons for doing so, the Legislative Council may recommend to the first selectman and the Board of Selectmen that in the sale of said property they consider factors other than obtaining the highest price, such as, for example, considering the buyer’s binding commitment to use the property for a specific purpose deemed beneficial to the town.”

Final Legal Review

As with all the additional and remaining revisions, the new charter draft will be the subject of a public hearing at the commission level before it is ratified for passage to the council. At that point any additions, revised or rejected recommendations will go to a second hearing before a final council vote sends the new language in some format to local voters on Election Day, November 3.

“We’re at the point where we’re starting to take everything we’ve done and we’re compiling it into a full final draft,” Mr Capeci said. “At that point we’ll be crossing t’s and dotting i’s before we send it to [the law firm] Cohen and Wolf for legal review.”

He said the next planned commission meeting, scheduled for June 11, will take up the budget process, while in the interim, the panel’s Financial Processes Committee will meet with Finance Director Robert Tait and possibly Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze to review more than two dozen items submitted by those officials for considered revision.

Part of that process will involve whether to change or scrap the town meeting as a vehicle to make decisions about appropriations between $500,000 and $10 million. Mr Capeci said currently, the council has the wherewithal to authorize appropriations up to a half-million dollars, and any appropriations of $10 million or more are required to go to a public referendum.

“But anything in-between has to go to a town meeting,” Mr Capeci said. “And typically it is a small number — a half dozen or less interested taxpayers — who go to those meetings and pass the appropriations.”

Mr Capeci said one of the possible adjustments would involve sending former town meeting proposals to the April budget ballot for voter consideration.

Another issue to be considered is whether to include language requiring elected officials involved in any grant processes to consider, but not be bound, to required impact statements that must accompany any grant award.

The commissioners have to also consider ten other miscellaneous requests, including whether to modify or eliminate a charter provision requiring the appointment of town constables, and whether the finance board should have access to its own legal resources.

Besides the planned June 11 meeting, Mr Capeci said he is scheduling two special meetings June 16 and 19, during which he expects the commission will recommend a final draft to send for legal review.

Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob said she has conferred with the town attorney, and has backed a schedule into the time line that culminates on Election Day.

“In order to meet that balloting date, we’ll need that approved charter draft by early July,” Ms Jacob said.